India, June 19 -- The International Space Station (ISS) has been facing a harrowing brush with emergency protocols as a long-standing air leak in the Russian Zvezda service module suddenly worsened. The emergency alert prompted NASA to issue a "safe haven" order, forcing the five NASA crew members, including four members of the SpaceX Crew-12 mission and NASA astronaut Chris Williams, to scramble into their docked Dragon capsule, Freedom, as a precautionary measure against the risk of rapid depressurisation.

The short tunnel section, which is dubbed PrK, connecting the Russian Zvezda module to the International Space Station's aft docking port, has been suffering a leak since the year 2019. On Friday, tensions flared as Russia decided to...